Dear Mr Fledgeby did sit down, and satisfied himself (or, judging from the expression of his countenance, DISsatisfied himself) that nothing new had occurred in the way of whisker-sprout since he came round the corner from the Albany.
'Dear Mr Fledgeby, it was needless to mention to you that my poor dear Alfred is much worried about his affairs at present, for he has told me what a comfort you are to him in his temporary difficulties, and what a great service you have rendered him.'
'Oh!' said Mr Fledgeby.
'Yes,' said Mrs Lammle.
'I didn't know,' remarked Mr Fledgeby, trying a new part of his chair, 'but that Lammle might be reserved about his affairs.'
'Not to me,' said Mrs Lammle, with deep feeling.
'Oh, indeed?' said Fledgeby.
'Not to me, dear Mr Fledgeby. I am his wife.'
'Yes. I--I always understood so,' said Mr Fledgeby.
'And as the wife of Alfred, may I, dear Mr Fledgeby, wholly without his authority or knowledge, as I am sure your discernment will perceive, entreat you to continue that great service, and once more use your well-earned influence with Mr Riah for a little more indulgence? The name I have heard Alfred mention, tossing in his dreams, IS Riah; is it not?'
'The name of the Creditor is Riah,' said Mr Fledgehy, with a rather uncompromising accent on his noun-substantive. 'Saint Mary Axe.
Pubsey and Co.'
'Oh yes!' exclaimed Mrs Lammle, clasping her hands with a certain gushing wildness. 'Pubsey and Co.!'
'The pleading of the feminine--' Mr Fledgeby began, and there stuck so long for a word to get on with, that Mrs Lammle offered him sweetly, 'Heart?'
'No,' said Mr Fledgeby, 'Gender--is ever what a man is bound to listen to, and I wish it rested with myself. But this Riah is a nasty one, Mrs Lammle; he really is.'
'Not if YOU speak to him, dear Mr Fledgeby.'
'Upon my soul and body he is!' said Fledgeby.
'Try. Try once more, dearest Mr Fledgeby. What is there you cannot do, if you will!'
'Thank you,' said Fledgeby, 'you're very complimentary to say so.
I don't mind trying him again, at your request. But of course Ican't answer for the consequences. Riah is a tough subject, and when he says he'll do a thing, he'll do it.'
'Exactly so,' cried Mrs Lammle, 'and when he says to you he'll wait, he'll wait.'
('She is a devilish clever woman,' thought Fledgeby. 'I didn't see that opening, but she spies it out and cuts into it as soon as it's made. ')'In point of fact, dear Mr Fledgeby,' Mrs Lammle went on in a very interesting manner, 'not to affect concealment of Alfred's hopes, to you who are so much his friend, there is a distant break in his horizon.'
This figure of speech seemed rather mysterious to Fascination Fledgeby, who said, 'There's a what in his--eh?'
'Alfred, dear Mr Fledgeby, discussed with me this very morning before he went out, some prospects he has, which might entirely change the aspect of his present troubles.'
'Really?' said Fledgeby.
'O yes!' Here Mrs Lammle brought her handkerchief into play.
'And you know, dear Mr Fledgeby--you who study the human heart, and study the world--what an affliction it would be to lose position and to lose credit, when ability to tide over a very short time might save all appearances.'
'Oh!' said Fledgeby. 'Then you think, Mrs Lammle, that if Lammle got time, he wouldn't burst up?--To use an expression,' Mr Fledgeby apologetically explained, 'which is adopted in the Money Market.'
'Indeed yes. Truly, truly, yes!'
'That makes all the difference,' said Fledgeby. 'I'll make a point of seeing Riah at once.'
'Blessings on you, dearest Mr Fledgeby!'
'Not at all,' said Fledgeby. She gave him her hand. 'The hand,' said Mr Fledgeby, 'of a lovely and superior-minded female is ever the repayment of a--'
'Noble action!' said Mrs Lammle, extremely anxious to get rid of him.
'It wasn't what I was going to say,' returned Fledgeby, who never would, under any circumstances, accept a suggested expression, 'but you're very complimentary. May I imprint a--a one--upon it?
Good morning!'
'I may depend upon your promptitude, dearest Mr Fledgeby?'
Said Fledgeby, looking back at the door and respectfully kissing his hand, 'You may depend upon it.'
In fact, Mr Fledgeby sped on his errand of mercy through the streets, at so brisk a rate that his feet might have been winged by all the good spirits that wait on Generosity. They might have taken up their station in his breast, too, for he was blithe and merry.
There was quite a fresh trill in his voice, when, arriving at the counting-house in St Mary Axe, and finding it for the moment empty, he trolled forth at the foot of the staircase: 'Now, Judah, what are you up to there?'
The old man appeared, with his accustomed deference.
'Halloa!' said Fledgeby, falling back, with a wink. 'You mean mischief, Jerusalem!'
The old man raised his eyes inquiringly.
'Yes you do,' said Fledgeby. 'Oh, you sinner! Oh, you dodger!
What! You're going to act upon that bill of sale at Lammle's, are you? Nothing will turn you, won't it? You won't be put off for another single minute, won't you?'
Ordered to immediate action by the master's tone and look, the old man took up his hat from the little counter where it lay.
'You have been told that he might pull through it, if you didn't go in to win, Wide-Awake; have you?' said Fledgeby. 'And it's not your game that he should pull through it; ain't it? You having got security, and there being enough to pay you? Oh, you Jew!'
The old man stood irresolute and uncertain for a moment, as if there might be further instructions for him in reserve.
'Do I go, sir?' he at length asked in a low voice.
'Asks me if he is going!' exclaimed Fledgeby. 'Asks me, as if he didn't know his own purpose! Asks me, as if he hadn't got his hat on ready! Asks me, as if his sharp old eye--why, it cuts like a knife--wasn't looking at his walking-stick by the door!'
'Do I go, sir?'
'Do you go?' sneered Fledgeby. 'Yes, you do go. Toddle, Judah!'
